The Secret of Monkey Island

I cursed my luck again as I slid down the monkey's throat. Have my dreams of guzzling grog and plundering galleons been reduced to this? "Three small trials and you're a pirate like us," they said. Fair…

80 1 October 1990

Adventure Point-and-click Puzzle Comedy Historical

The Secret of Monkey Island is an adventure developed by Lucasfilm Games, released 1 October 1990 on Sega CD, Amiga, Atari ST/STE and DOS. The main story takes about 7 hrs to finish.

Verified 18 Oct 2026 Sources: IGDB , Wikipedia

What The Secret of Monkey Island is

The Secret of Monkey Island is an adventure game developed by Lucasfilm Games and released in 1990. It was published by JVC Musical Industries. It is available on Sega CD, Amiga, Atari ST/STE, DOS, FM Towns and Mac. It runs on SCUMM.

The premise, in the publisher's words

Guybrush Threepwood, a young man with desires to become a mighty pirate, travels to Melee Island, a pirate haven. Upon arrival he meets three " important looking pirates" in the SCUMM Bar who set him three challenges to test his worthiness. These entail defeating the legendary insult sword fighting master Carla, finding buried treasure and stealing a statue from the governors mansion. During a botched break-in to the mansion he meets and subsequently falls in love with the governor Elaine Marley. Elsewhere the ghost pirate LeChuck is seen pining after the love of his life, the same Elaine Marley, and hatches a plan to capture her. While Guybrush is busy finishing the trials LeChuck and his…

Description from the publisher · source

How it plays

It is played from a side view perspective. Its themes are comedy and historical. It is a single-player game with no multiplayer component.

Where it sits in the Monkey Island series

The Secret of Monkey Island is the first of 7 entries we hold in the Monkey Island series. The next entry was Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge in 1991. Its critic score of 80 is 7 points below the series average of 87. The highest-rated entry is Return to Monkey Island at 92.

See all 7 Monkey Island games in release order →

How it was received

The Secret of Monkey Island holds a critic score of 80 out of 100. That places it above 64% of the 7,527 rated adventure games in our database, which average 72. Games released in 1990 averaged 65, so it scored 15 points above the year average. Player ratings track closely with critics at 83, across 496 votes.

How long it takes, and what that costs

The main story runs about 7 hrs. Completing everything takes closer to 22.7 hrs, roughly 3.2 times the length of the critical path.

Cheats and codes

We have not confirmed any working cheat codes for The Secret of Monkey Island yet. Rather than reprint a list we have not tested, this section stays empty until one is verified.

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